Hershey Felder to Debut Debussy Show in 2019; 'Irving Berlin' Headed to San Diego, New York This Season

Award-winning actor and piano virtuoso Hershey Felder will bring a special return engagement of his wildly acclaimed one-man show, Hershey Felder AS Irving Berlin to San Diego Repertory Theatre (San Diego REP).

The production, featuring music and lyrics by the great American songwriter Irving Berlin, book by Hershey Felder and directed by longtime Felder collaborator Trevor Hay, will play from December 20, 2017 through January 7, 2018, with a press opening on December 21 at the Lyceum Stage Theatre at San Diego REP in Horton Plaza in San Diego, CA. Hershey Felder AS Irving Berlin played its first concert performance at San Diego REP, and returns as a special holiday attraction for the theatre's 42nd anniversary season.

Since its premiere, Hershey Felder AS Irving Berlin has played 12 record-breaking engagements at some of the country's leading theatres, including The Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, Chicago's Royal George Theatre, and the Majestic Theatre in Boston. Hershey Felder AS Irving Berlin returns to San Diego after a highly successful run at the La Jolla Playhouse in 2015.

In related news, Hershey Felder AS Irving Berlin will return to New York later in 2018, with an Off-Broadway run from August 24 through October 28, 2018 at 59E59 Theatres.

Hershey Felder also announces that his newest solo work featuring music from the 19th century French composer Claude Debussy, UNE HISTOIRE D'AMOUR A PARIS, A Paris Love Story, will open in the U.S. at a theater to be announced in 2019. Debussy will join the growing list of prominent male composers from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries Mr. Felder has enshrined in solo productions including BERLIN, BERNSTEIN, BEETHOVEN, LISZT, TCHAIKOVSKY, CHOPIN and GERSHWIN.

Jerome Kern famously said, "Irving Berlin has no place in American music-he is American music." George Gershwin called him "the greatest songwriter that has ever lived." Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin brings the man behind the iconic music to life in an evening reflecting his remarkable journey from his inauspicious beginnings as a Russian Jewish immigrant of five, to his rise to become America's most beloved and prolific songwriter.

From Tin Pan Alley to Carnegie Hall, from The Great White Way to The Silver Screen and from the pop charts to the steps of the nation's capital, Berlin's music provided America with the soundtrack of a century. Berlin's catalogue includes over 1,500 songs, 18 Broadway shows, 16 feature films, 232 top-10 hits and 10 #1 hits. Berlin's songs have been performed by a diverse list of artists including: Fred Astaire, Aretha Franklin, Ethel Merman, Willie Nelson, Paul McCartney Elvis Presley, Luciano Pavarotti, Ella Fitzgerald Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra, Diana Ross & The Supremes, Barbra Streisand, Billie Holiday, Marilyn Monroe and Lady Gaga.

Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin features some of the composer's most popular and enduring songs, including "Alexander's Ragtime Band," "Always," "Blue Skies," "God Bless America," "Puttin' on the Ritz," "There's No Business Like Show Business," and "White Christmas."

Hershey Felder AS Irving Berlin features scenic design by Felder and Hay, lighting design by Richard Norwood, projection design by Christopher Ash and Lawrence Siefert and sound design/production management by Erik Carstensen. The show is produced by Eva Price, Samantha F. Voxakis and Karen Racanelli.

Following the run at San Diego REP, Felder will perform OUR GREAT TCHAIKOVSKY, straight from its acclaimed West End run, at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts in Mountain View, CA., from January 10 through February 11, 2018.

Tickets ($97-$56) can be purchased in person at the San Diego REP Box Office, by calling 619-544-1000 or online at www.sdrep.org. Active military, teacher and senior discounts are available. Student tickets are available for all performances for just $20 each. Prices subject to change.

Hershey Felder (Irving Berlin/Playwright/Co-Design) Recently named to Time Magazine's 2016 Top 10 Plays nd Musicals, Hershey Felder has played over 4,500 performances of his self-created solo productions at some of the world's most prestigious theatres and has broken box office records consistently. American Theatre Magazine has said, "Hershey Felder is in a category all his own." His shows include: George Gershwin Alone (Broadway's Helen Hayes Theatre, West End's Duchess Theatre); Monsieur Chopin; Beethoven; Maestro (Leonard Bernstein); Franz Liszt in Musik, Lincoln: An American Story, Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin, and Our Great Tchaikovsky. His newest work, UNE HISTOIRE D'AMOUR A PARIS, A Paris Love Story, featuring the music of Claude Debussy, will premiere in 2019 at a theatre on the West Coast. His compositions and recordings include Aliyah, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra; Fairytale, a musical; Les Anges de Paris, Suite for Violin and Piano; Song Settings; Saltimbanques for Piano and Orchestra; Etudes Thematiques for Piano; and An American Story for Actor and Orchestra. Hershey is the adaptor, director and designer for the internationally performed play with music, The Pianist of Willesden Lane; as well as producer and designer for the musical Louis and Keely: 'Live' at the Sahara, directed by Taylor Hackford; and writer and director for the upcoming Flying Solo, featuring opera legend Nathan Gunn, as well as two solo stage works, Women on a Ledge, for harpist Rita Costanzi, and The Story of My Cello for cello virtuoso, Antonio Lysy. Current upcoming composition projects include: EDITH, an opera, based on the story of British nurse Edith Cavell; a Washington Irving musical, and Chosen By God, a musical journey based on journalist Joshua Hammer's memoir. Hershey has operated the full-service Production Company Hershey Felder Presents since 2001. He has been a scholar-in-residence at Harvard University's Department of Music and is married to Kim Campbell, the first female Prime Minister of Canada.

Trevor Hay (Director/Scenic Co-Design) directed the world premieres of An American Story for Actor and Orchestra, Abe Lincoln's Piano, Hershey Felder As Franz Liszt In Musik and Our Great Tchaikovsky. He is Associate Director for Mona Golabek's "The Pianist of Willesden Lane." Former member of the historic Old Globe Theatre in San Diego where, at the age of nine, his first position was selling Old Globe memorabilia. Over the next 32 years, Mr. Hay went on to various aspects of production on more than 80 presentations, including the Broadway productions of Jack O'Brien's Damn Yankees, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Twyla Tharp's The Times They Are A-Changin'. Included in his 23 seasons at The Old Globe were eleven seasons of the Summer Shakespeare Festival Repertory, as well as work on Tracy Letts' August: Osage County, directed by Sam Gold, and Hershey Felder's George Gershwin Alone, Monsieur Chopin, and Maestro Bernstein.